2006 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Niger

United States Department of Labor, 2006 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Niger, 31 August 2007, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48d749474b.html [accessed 31 March 2015]

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In 2000, approximately 71.8 percent of boys and 60.6 percent of girls ages 5 to 14 were working in Niger.3091 Children work in the agricultural, commercial, and artisanal sectors often in family businesses.3092 Children in rural areas work on family farms, gathering water or firewood, pounding grain, tending animals, or working in rice fields.3093 Children work in hazardous conditions in mines and quarries breaking rock; transporting heavy loads in head-pans; washing and processing gold, which may expose children to mercury; and crushing and hoisting ore.3094 Children also perform domestic work, guard cars, shine shoes, and work as porters.3095 Some boys, whose parents send them from rural areas to cities to attend Koranic schools, are forced by their schoolmasters or marabouts to beg on the streets or do manual labor.3096

Traditional forms of caste-based servitude, including of children, still exist in isolated parts of Niger.3097 Children's caste standing often determines the sort of work in which they engage. Depending on the region, children may be involved in agricultural work; cattle rearing; domestic service; or leather, wood, or iron working.3098

Niger serves as a source, transit, and destination country for children trafficked for forced labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and domestic service. Children are trafficked internally to work in mines, manual labor, and domestic service, as well as for commercial sexual exploitation and begging.3099 Some children are trafficked to Niger for exploitive labor from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo. Children are trafficked from Niger to North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East for sexual exploitation and domestic service.3100

Child Labor Laws and Enforcement

The law sets the minimum age for employment at 14 years. Children 12 to 14 may work with special authorization for only 2 hours per day or 4 hours during school vacations. Children 14 to 18 may not work for more than 4.5 hours per day and are restricted to certain types of employment.3101 The law also requires that employers guarantee minimum sanitary working conditions for children.3102

The Labor Code prohibits forced and bonded labor, except for work by legally convicted prisoners.3103 Nigerien law also outlaws all forms of slavery and provides for a prison sentence of 30 years for violations.3104 There are no laws against trafficking. The law criminalizes the procurement or incitement of a minor for the purpose of prostitution, and establishes fines and prison terms of 2 to 5 years for violations.3105 Nigerien law also punishes the parents of minors or any person encouraging minors to beg and who profit from their begging by 6 months to 1 year of imprisonment.3106 The minimum age for conscription into the military is 18.3107

The Ministry of Labor is charged with enforcing labor laws, but has very limited resources to do so.3108 The Ministry of Labor had approximately 30 inspectors deployed nationwide who are responsible for enforcing all elements of the Labor Code, including investigating cases of child labor.3109

The Ministers of Interior, Justice, and the Promotion of Women and Protection of Children share the responsibility for combating trafficking in persons.3110

Current Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor

The Ministry of Labor continued its work with ILO-IPEC and UNICEF on a program to determine the extent of the country's child labor problem.3111 The Ministry of Mines is cooperating in a USDOL-funded USD 3 million regional project implemented by ILO-IPEC to withdraw 1,500 children from artisanal gold mining and prevent 2,500 children from exploitive work in two mining areas in Niger and Burkina Faso.3112

The Government of Niger is also participating in a USDOL-funded, USD 2 million Child Labor Education Initiative project implemented by Catholic Relief Services to combat child labor through education. This 4-year project targets 3,200 children from exploitive work in industries such as mining; it also aims to limit children's exposure to agricultural work, cattle-breeding activities, and domestic service.3113 The government participates in a regional ILOIPEC project funded by France to combat child labor in Francophone Africa.3114

In July 2006, Niger was 1 of 24 countries to adopt the Multilateral Cooperation Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, in West and Central Africa and the Joint Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in the West and Central African Regions.3115 As part of the Multilateral Cooperative Agreement, the governments agreed to put into place the child trafficking monitoring system developed by the U.S. Department of Labor-funded, ILO-IPEC LUTRENA project; to ensure that birth certificates and travel identity documents cannot easily be falsified or altered; to provide assistance to each other in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of trafficking offenders; to protect, rehabilitate, and reintegrate trafficking victims; and to improve educational systems, vocational training and apprenticeships.3116

The government worked with UNICEF and local NGOs to prevent trafficking. Efforts included the training of police and border security officers to identify victims of trafficking,3117 and facilitating the rehabilitation and repatriation of rescued children. The police also worked with local truckers' unions to organize homeward transportation for trafficking victims.3118